Way back in 1997 a bunch of university students were sent on placement to a then large Blue Chip company in order to 'acquire' skills that would allow them to obtain valuable work experience in their chosen industry, IT.

What inevitably happened was an introduction to the corporate culture including all the benefits. When we say benefits we are of course referring to free phone calls, unlimited high-bandwidth internet access and free doughnuts.

Like most students of IT, these guys had all the usual hobbies. Building their own computers, finding alternative uses for hardware, being untidy, drinking beer, talking about sex and the latest in software/films/music releases.

A string of internet web sites followed, and died. When they finally got around to combining their efforts, for some unknown reason they called their creation 'Detox'.

The comic strip

When a lack of support for the site seemed to signify its death, ideas to keep it going were generated during a commonplace daily ICQ session. The idea to create a comic strip and place it on the front page was suggested. Not really a suggestion out of the blue as the majority of the group were already reading online comics daily by then.

What would the comic be about? Well, ourselves of course.

The creation of the comic strip fell to DK aka David Kei or just Kei. All aliases owing to the fact that he hates to use his real name anywhere.

Background to the strips characters and storyline

Contrary to popular belief the real Dave does not spend 90% of his time pr0n surfing. In other words the characters are based on a variety of real life characters that are in and around our immediate circle of friends. What tends to happen is an idea for a strip is thought up. Then it is decided as to which characters to use in the strip. In Detox v1 there were complaints about using this character or that in a given scenario. The second time around only the names Dave, Wes and JP were used from the original strip. The rest of the cast were iterations of the previous cast members but with new names and profiles.

Ok, on with the storyline. In the real world Dave and co graduated from University and the majority of the group went back to the Blue Chip company mentioned earlier as both permanent employees and contractors. Others went to work for Blue Chips further afield. We all stay in touch via email and ICQ with the odd LAN Party when we can all agree on a date and venue.

If you are familiar with today’s IT industry then you will know about the stereotypes. Contractors are scum according to permies. They have no loyalty to the company, make twice as much money as them and moan about all the things they have to pay themselves that permies get handed on a plate. Permies however are lazy buggers that sit on their bums getting free training, pension plans and have no idea how to deal with accountants (violently if I had my way) or agencies. They probably only look at their CV's once a decade.

So take a group of permies and contractors, all recent graduates. Friends for several years, embarking on their hopefully long careers. Then throw in girlfriends, the internet, computers, company politics, must have toys, financial woes and life itself. Got that? Good. Now you know what Detox is all about. As Dave and co in the real world experience life, DK online will twist it into the world of Detox.

The characters of Detox v5.0

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